kerstin rodgers

There are a whole list of food courses however, from chocolate making with Paul A Young to learning classic French cuisine with Michel Roux. Even though I’ve met Richard several times and had one to one demonstrations of his technique, it’s useful to have a video that you can stop/start/rewind and repeat at will. I didn’t know for instance that when making bread in a mixer, you should start with cold water rather than luke-warm (because the machine will heat it up). Me and my bubble had a couple of weeks of gorgeous fresh bread from focaccia to bread sticks, fougasse, poppy seed stars, rolls, sesame seed plaits, pizza bases and sandwich bread.

Wild mushroom pie; pumpkin and goat’s cheese pithivier; parsnips and carrots; roast potatoes; balsamic glaze brussel sprouts; red cabbage; creamed leeks; cranberry sauce; mashed swede with parmesan crust; Christmas pudding, brandy butter and coffee. Contents: a brunch kit with all the ingredients for baked eggs, chickpea ragu, yoghurt, parsley, sourdough bread, muffin mix, cold-pressed ginger, orange and carrot juice and gourmet coffee. Explaining her change of profession, she says: ” I took voluntary redundancy in 2014 and got a retraining allowance which part-paid for a year’s training at Leith’s cookery school. The pack includes access to the interactive show, 60g portions of each of two featured cheeses, tasting card, drink instructions, recipe instructions, packaging and next day tracked postage Atmosphere: you have an opportunity to meet and question the cheesemaker and discuss the product with others.

I first had them in Japan last year on a ‘stove train’ in the northernmost tip of the main island. A vendor rolled his trolley along the train, offering bags of dried cuttlefish to toast on the stove top and small bottles of sake. Three middle aged Japanese women befriended me, helping me to carry my enormous blue suitcase up and down stairs. They’d brought extra snacks for the stove train: mochi cake and sweet potatoes.

A glum winter is brightened by citrus season: seville oranges for marmalade, blood oranges from Sicily, bergamots (the zest of which perfume Earl Grey Tea) and leafy mandarins. Pomelo, like a large but not so bitter grapefruit, is another citrus worth trying, especially in salads: this can be bought at corner shops in Kilburn High Road. ‘Gondhoraj Lebu’, large green knobbly citrus costing around £1.40 each from East London/Whitechapel ethnic shops. For many citrus (Bergamot, Yuzu, Bengali limes) the zest, crammed with volatile essential oils is the point, while the actual fruit can be rather dry.